Softball League Accused of Fielding Error

With 40 teams, 450 players and back-to-back regional championships, the Simi Valley Girls Softball league seems a success by any standard--except its neighbors’.

With its 1996 season just around the corner, the popular league is facing the ire of residents living near the grounds of the former Arroyo School, where the girls play six days a week.

Neighbors say the league is overusing the ball fields and bringing excessive noise, traffic and parking problems to their streets. They have petitioned the Simi Valley Unified School District, which owns the property, to limit the teams to two fields, instead of the five they now use.

“We want the activity reduced,” said Gerry Game, who has lived across from the fields on Electra Avenue for 30 years. “It is too much. The neighborhood can’t handle it.”

The league has been around for 25 years. In the past few years, it has become extremely successful and popular. It now offers six levels of teams for girls between the ages of 4 and 17, and had teams winning the Western Regional Championships in 1994 and 1995.

League officials and neighbors talk about cooperation and compromise, but their positions are far apart.

“Our league agrees we have outgrown our field,” said Rick Fuller, president of the softball league. “We do need another facility, and we want to work with the neighbors.”

But Fuller and other league officials said they are not about to give up the fields.

“We can’t cut it down to two fields,” said Raymond Cruz, co-editor of the Baseline, the league’s newsletter.

With 40 teams practicing and playing several times a week, the league simply could not fit its players onto two fields, Fuller said. League officials said they have been trying to get sponsorship from major corporations to build a sports complex at an undetermined site. However, no plans are underway and the new season begins in February.

Meanwhile, the league is hoping to get authorization to transform a few abandoned basketball courts at the former school into parking to keep parents and spectators from parking in adjoining neighborhoods. But even if approved, the new parking will accommodate only two dozen cars and is unlikely to appease neighbors.

With the Rancho Simi Recreation and Park District saying it has no more available fields in the city, the issue will probably remain in contention.

Dean Wood, whose home abuts one of the fields, has lived in the area since 1963. The backstop for one of the fields is about 16 feet from his yard. He said spectators line up between the backstop and his home.

“They use our trash cans, and if they can’t hit the trash cans, they use our yard,” Wood said. “The noise level is pretty high.” And pointing to a few neighborhood kids riding bicycles down the street, he said, “With all the traffic, it’s rough for the kids here. It’s not safe.”

League officials said they police themselves. They said they encourage their members to be courteous to neighbors, and their bylaws have provisions for suspending kids whose parents block residents’ driveways or drive unsafely in the area.

They also said they have more at stake than a handful of fields.

In the past few years, the league has paid for upkeep of the fields, built chain-link backstops and concrete dugouts and installed permanent locker facilities and an irrigation system.

“We put in at least $25,000 over the last three years,” Cruz said.

But for area residents, the improvements mean more players, more noise and more traffic.

“These improvements are custom-built for Simi Valley Girls Softball,” Game said. “This is now a complex dedicated to them. Next thing you know, they’ll build stands and lights.”

Neighbors said the league controls the usage of the grounds and want that changed.

“We have nothing to negotiate with,” Game said. “The league refuses to voluntarily reduce their activity. We are asking the school district to control it and we are not getting much support.

“This is not a softball issue,” Game said. He said area residents realize the league is very important to the girls. “It’s a matter of an inconsiderate neighbor.”

The school district has final authority on the matter, but officials there are unsure about how to resolve it.

“The problem is how do you limit it and not limit it totally,” said Lowell Schultze, acting superintendent for business services. He has been involved with the issue since April. “It’s not an easy thing. Hopefully we can resolve this before the league starts.”

The issue has been gathering steam over the past few months. In June, neighbors of the school presented Schultze with a complaint about noise. Schultze met with area residents in July and August. Residents described these meetings as unproductive.

For several years, the league honored an agreement it had with the residents that said the facility would not be used on Sundays. But in July, the league hosted a large weekend tournament. For area residents, that was the straw that broke the camel’s back.

At a recent school board meeting, neighbors attended in force. With more than 50 signatures on hand, they petitioned the board to reduce the number of fields available from five to two.

School board member Diane Collins volunteered her efforts to mediate between the neighbors and the league.

“My daughter played in the league,” Collins said. “I know how important it is to the girls.”

Collins said she also understands the neighbors’ complaints.

“Something has to be done,” she said. “But there is only so much the district can do. It is not our place to limit the number of games or people using the field.”

There are plans for a meeting in January. However, the meeting hasn’t been scheduled, and the neighbors are skeptical a solution can be found. “A January meeting?” Game asked. “We don’t know anything about it.”

Meanwhile, the girls hope the matter can be resolved so they can continue on their winning streaks.

“If we didn’t have the league, we wouldn’t have softball,” said Jenny Bieniek, 15, who has been in the league for seven years. “Softball is my life now. I just want to keep on playing.”